Dayhiked Middle Pal with ScottyS from Glacier Lodge up the South Fork of Big Pine Creek on our summer quest to climb all 15 CA 14ers. The 3rd class climbing on the lowest part of the buttress was actually 4th, so we may not have taken the easiest way. Some scum-of -the-earth took a dump about 10 feet below the summit, right on the access ramp, and wiped their a** with their luggage claim tag, and left it all for everyone else to walk over. What a low-life! This peak is fun, and very worthwhile.

Day 6 of the 2002 Mountaineers Challenge. 10:45hr CTC from Glacier Lodge. Ran into four germans near the bottom on the way down who weren't very good rock climbers, but knew how to maximize rockfall! Trip Report.

Of all the CA 14ers, this is the most fun. Camping at Brainerd lake is wonderful, the talus is a slog, but the face itself is really fun 3rd class. We were the only people on the route, good thing too cause we didn't have helmets, and bozos above would be bad news on this route.

A real enjoyable climb & a fairly short approach hike, when compared to the N. Fork trail. We camped at Brainard Lake, which was the nicest camp I've stayed at while attempting any big peak in the Sierra.

Solo from the South Lake Trail-Head to the bottom of the face where I met Patrick. Ascended the East Face to the summit. Total ascent time 4:15 hrs. Descended the West Face to the PCT next to the Palisade Lakes. Followed PCT over Mather Pass,then cross-country to the West Face of Split Mt. Met up with fellow climber, Nancy, on summit of Split, then descended the North East Chute to the Red Lake Trail-head.

With Vladimir. We were planning to follow the "Northeast Face" route described here. When we reached the top of the moraine splitting the glacier we met a party who pointed to us a shorter route: starting from the southern half of the glacier, then follow the chute directly to the summit. This chute was to the left of the main chute outlined in the picture posted by snwburd. The band of rocks was reddish but were surrounded by whitish stuff, however, we bypassed it.

Then we changed route again when trying to climb up from the south half of the glacier. We saw a 30 feet long class 4 chimney up the cliff face marked with ducks. So we picked this one instead of the supposedly class 3 ramp further to the left. Above the crack it was mostly class 3 clean rock with good holds, sometimes with short class 4 sections. There was no loose rock whatsoever. This was my first 14er and first experience with class 4 climbing. A beautiful peak with a nice challenge, this was a very fun mountain.

After descending the East Couloir of Mount Sill, I scrambled over to the Northeast Face of Middle Palisade. In order to avoid some snow at the base of the route, I headed straight up to the right of the real start of the route. After a hundred feet or so, I joined the real route and followed it to the summit. The textbook Class 3 climbing was a lot of fun.

On the descent, I was faced with the task of finding my way down the South Fork of Big Pine Creek. I had never been up this way before, and I didn't see any trails. The guidebook was useless (as usual) and the topo didn't reveal anything noteworthy. So, I headed directly down to Finger Lake.

I'll spare you the details, but it suffices to say that after a few hours of scrambling, bush whacking, going back uphill in order to avoid swimming in the lake, and crossing back and forth across a steep stream, I found the real trail. It was getting dark, so I took out my headlamp. It must have twisted on during the day because the batteries were completely dead. So, I stumbled down the trail to my car in the dark.